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7.
information overload, information pollution,
information falsification
 you need information literacy:
(1) to find relevant information fast and efficiently
(2) to be able to determine the reliability of the
information found
(3) to use the information found correctly and in an
ethically acceptable manner
Information
literacy

8.
Megan Stark, Information in Place: Integrating Sustainability into
Information Literacy Instruction, 2011
Five standards for information literacy
1. The information literate student determines the nature and extent of
the information needed
2. The information literate student accesses needed information
effectively and efficiently
3. The information literate student evaluates information and its
sources critically and incorporates selected information into his or her
knowledge base and value system
4. The information literate student, individually or as a member of a
group, uses information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose
5. The information literate student understands many of the economic,
legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and
accesses and uses information ethically and legally
Information
literacy

9.
Putting these standards into practice in
research:
 Identify research questions
 Define search terms on the basis of a research
question
 Know and recognize various sources of information
 Make a correct analysis of the differences between
and the worth of each information source
 Correctly determine the reliability and authority of
each information source
 Correctly interpret and use bibliographical references
 Understand the social, ethical and legal implications of
the distribution of information
Information
literacy

10.
 Develop a search strategy that will get you reliable,
scientific information as fast as possible and as
complete as possible
 Know what you are looking for, how you need to look
for it and where to look for it
 Searching without a strategy? => you waste time and
get incomplete and/or unreliable results
Information
literacy

12.
 not dependent on one single criterion or label, but
combination of
 internal criteria
 external criteria
 the more criteria fulfilled, the more scientific/reliable
the information
Scientific
nature of
information

16.
• Complete objectivity is an illusion: all information (i.c.
publication) is coloured by he/she who provides that
information (i.c. author)
• Be wary of manipulation of facts: consciously twisting
or hiding facts with the purpose of leading the reader
to the conclusion(s) determined beforehand by the
author
Internal
criteria:
content

17.
“giveaways”
 Argumentation: use of personal or irrelevant
arguments, ignoring or twisting the arguments of the
opponent
 Data: lack of factual data which can be checked
 Language: frequent use of emotional style
Internal
criteria:
content

18.
 older publication? check if results have not been
corrected or supplanted by more recent research
 an older publication is not untrustworthy by definition
 an older publication is less reliable if:
 the topic it addresses is studied intensively and
additional or corrective information is put forward
on a regular basis
 the topic itself is tied to a certain time/era
Tip: look for recent publications, and supplement
them with the most important older publications
(check references)
Internal
criteria: age

19.
 education (proof of training)
 affiliation (proof of reliability + trust of peers)
of course only an indication if the author stays
within his/her field of expertise
Internal
criteria: profile
of the author

21.
Peer review
external check of a manuscript by specialists
of the topic discussed; quite often
anonymously in order to ensure objectivity
e.g. “double blind peer review”
External
criteria:
judgment
before
publication

22.
 reviews
 citations
qualitative: repeat / confirm results => adds to the
authority and the reliability of the work quoted
quantitative: large number of citations indicates the
impact of the work quoted
! NB: quotes can also be negative !
External
criteria:
judgment after
publication

23.
Basic
questions
 Was there a quality and reliability check before publication?
(journal/publisher is an indication)
 Does the author refer to sources?Which are his/her sources?
 Does the author refer to sources in a correct and complete
manner?

24.
Do the CRAP test
Currency
How recent is the information? How recently has the website been updated? Is it current
enough for your topic?
Reliabilty
What kind of information is included in the resource? Is content of the resource primarily
opinion? Is it balanced? Does the creator provide references or sources for data or
quotations?
Authority
Who is the creator or author? What is the publisher’s interest (if any) in this information?
Are there advertisements on the website?
Point of view / Purpose
Is this fact or opinion? Is it biased? Is the creator/author trying to sell you something?
Reliability of
websites

28.
The role of
libraries
Providers of information: libraries
Gate keepers of information: librarians
Not only physical, but also digital libraries
Not only physical, but also digital services

29.
Public libraries:
 primarily social role
 selection of fiction and non-fiction for the general
public
 diverse public
 in principal accessible to all
Types of
libraries

30.
National libraries:
 collect and preserve all publications which appear in a
specific country, quite often also all publications about
that country published elsewhere
 frequently work with legally binding depot
 often also cultural role, e.g. by highlighting the
heritage of a specific country
Types of
libraries

31.
Research libraries:
 collection is built with the specific intention to support
scientific research and teaching
 reserved to researchers and students
Types of
libraries

34.
Bibliographic databases (s.s.):
Only contain bibliographic information (i.e.
information on author of the publication, title of the
publication, year/place of publication), possibly
together with an abstract and a link to the location or a
digital copy of this publication on another platform
Bibliographic
databases

35.
Citation databases:
do not merely contain the bibliographic reference, but
also information about citations (i.e. other
publications which quote this particular source of
information)
e.g.Web of Science: Integration of three citation indexes of
journals with a high impact factor (Science Citation Index
Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts and Humanities
Citation Index)
Bibliographic
databases

36.
Full-text databases:
do not only contain bibliographical references, but also
a full text digital version of the publications in question
• the full text is often itself fully searchable
• some full-text databases only offer an archival
collection, other only the most recent years
Bibliographic
databases

37.
You use a bibliographic database if
- You want to make a survey of studies available
concerning a particular topic
You do NOT use a bibliographic database if
- You want to find out whether a specific institution
provides access to a particular item
Bibliographic
databases

38.
• Know which type of
bibliographic database you
are using (full-text or not?)
• Know what the database
offers and what not
• Know what you are looking
at: only the reference? only a
snippet? full text?
• Use multiple bibliographic
databases
• Get acquainted with the
functionalisties of the
databases which are most
important for your research
Bibliographic
databases

39.
Catalogues
Catalogue
provides a description of a book, a journal and/or other
materials, together with where you can find it

40.
Two types of catalogue
1. General catalogue
e.g. catalogue of an institution (for example of the
holdings of a specific research library)
2. Specialised catalogue
e.g. catalogue of a specific type of material (for
example books printed in England between 1473
and 1640, together with their current location)
Catalogues

41.
Examples of general catalogues
- UniCat: unified catalogue of Belgian research
libraries
- Copac: unified catalogue of about 90 research
libraries in the United Kingdom and Ireland, including
the British Library
- WorldCat: unified catalogue of more than 10.000
libraries worldwide
Catalogues

42.
You use a general catalogue if
- You know what you are looking for and want to know
where exactly you can find it
- You want to find out what a particular institution has
“on offer” concerning a particular topic
You do NOT use a general catalogue if
- You want to make an exhaustive survey of studies
available concerning a particular topic
Catalogues

44.
Journal
appears periodically (e.g. every 3 months)
contains articles, i.e. several (shorter) studies
you typicaly want to access a particular journal
article, but sometimes need to remember to
search for the overarching journal instead
the journal in which an article appears is
typically seen as an element determining the
importance of that article
Types of
publications

45.
Collections of essays
book that unites various short studies by one or several
authors, typically centered around a specific topic or at
the occasion of a specific event
e.g. proceedings of a conference
e.g. Festschrift
Types of
publications

46.
Monograph
book-length study, typically by one signle
author, of a well defined scientific topic
e.g. “the application of statistical process
control in healthcare improvement in the
Netherlands between 1985 and 2000”
Types of
publications

48.
Looking for
information
The problem with general search engines
(like Google):
 search results are not checked for quality or reliability
 commercial, statistic and nationalistic parameters
determine the ranking of results; not their relevance or
reliability
 not all scientific information is available online
 general search engines index only part of the internet

49.
Side step:
Googlization
 Who’s in charge? “we are Google's products, not its
users” (HaroldThimbleby)
 Storing of personal data:
“The problem is that we may like Google today, but it
could go bad. Google knows too much about everyone for
us to risk that.” (HaroldThimbleby)
 Role of big companies in the distribution of
information:
“when business interest conflicts with the public interest,
the public interest suffers” (cf. SteveWasserman, The
Amazon Effect)

50.
Side step:
Googlization
 Google: expansion of search engine to include
many other services: e-mail, maps, pictures,
google drive, ...
Compare amazon: now also take-away (Metro 08/09/2016)
 Googlization: domination of Google over all forms
of the distribution of knowledge over the internet
Cf. SivaVaidhyanathan, The Googlization of Everything – and
WhyWe ShouldWorry (University of California Press, 2011)

53.
 How much time did you get?
 Realistic assessment of time you want/can spend on your search
 How exhaustive does the result of your search need to be?
 Sometimes you only need one piece of information or one article,
sometimes you need a whole bibliography; sometimes you only need the
most recent literature, sometimes you need to have a more complete view
of the literature
 What is the specific task?
 Sometime syou only need to gather some literature, sometimes you need
to study and compare it thoroughly
Looking for
information

54.
From formulating the problem to
keywords
Key words = central notions in the formulation
of the problem which form the basis of a query
Looking for
information

55.
Example:
Make a bibliography of scientific publications about the
use of place names in the novels of the Brontë sisters
Key words: place names, Brontë sisters
Looking for
information

60.
Boolean operator AND
only information which contains both search terms
!most search machines combine multiple search terms automatically with the
Boolean AND-operator!
use AND in a search to:
 narrow your results
 tell the database that ALL search terms must be present in the resulting
records
 example: cloning AND humans
Combining
search terms:
Boolean
operators

61.
Boolean operator OR
results which contain at least one of the search terms
use OR in a search to:
 connect two or more similar concepts
 broaden your results, telling the database that ANY of your search terms can
be present in the resulting records
 example: cloningOR genetics
Combining
search terms:
Boolean
operators

62.
Boolean operator NOT
results that contain the first but not the second search term
use NOT in a search to:
 exclude words from your search
 narrow your search, telling the database to ignore concepts that may be
implied by your search terms
 example: cloning NOT sheep
Combining
search terms:
Boolean
operators

63.
Search order
Be aware of the logical order in which words are connected when using
Boolean operators:
 Databases usually recognize AND as the primary operator, and will
connect concepts with AND together first.
 Use brackets to determine the priority of combining search terms
Examples:
ethicsAND (cloningOR reproductive techniques)
(ethic* OR moral*) AND (bioengineeringOR cloning)
Combining
search terms:
Boolean
operators

65.
Combining
search terms:
truncation /
wildcards
Use truncation or wildcards
 If you are using a root word as your search term, i.e. a word with
multiple possible endings
Example: sun, but also suns, sunshine, sunny, sunlight, sunscreen, etc.
 If you want to use one search term to look for several search
terms which only slightly differ in spelling
Example: woman, women
 If you know that there are several ways to spell a word, or you are
uncertain of the spelling
Example: color, colour

67.
Combining
search terms:
truncation
Truncation
Truncation broadens your search to include various word
endings and spellings (symbol used at the end of a word)
 To use truncation, enter the root of a word and put the
truncation symbol at the end
 The database will return results that include any ending of
that root word
Examples:
child* = child, childs, children, childrens, childhood
genetic* = genetic, genetics, genetically

68.
The trick is not to
truncate to fast
E.g. hum* will search for results
containing humour, but it will
also retrieve unrelated terms like
human, humbug, humerus,
hummus, etc.
Combining
search terms:
truncation

69.
Combining
search terms:
wildcards
Wildcards
Wildcards substitute a symbol for one letter of a word
(symbol used within a word)
This is particularly useful if you want to search for
singulars as wel as plurals; and if a word is spelled in
different ways, but still has the same meaning
Examples:
wom!n = woman, women
colo?r = color, colour

72.
Combining
search terms:
advanced
search
Search with more aim by filtering: e.g. if you are looking for books by Adam Smith
instead of about him, it is more efficient to limit your search to the author field.
Combine search terms smartly: e.g. author = “Tippett”, title = “statistics”

73.
Tip: Use the Boolean AND-operator and avoid the Boolean OR-
operator
Tip:Truncate as late as possible
Tip: Use advanced search to combine search terms smartly
Tip: Use advanced search to search with more aim, using filters
Help! I have
too many
results

74.
Tip: Use synonyms, translations and morfological variants of
your search terms and combine these with the Boolean OR-
operator
Tip: Use related terms and broader terms of your search terms
and combine these with the Boolean OR-operator
Tip: Use truncation or wild cards
Help! I do not
get enough
results

75.
A lot of databases / catalogues / platforms offer the
possibility to repeat searches automatically and alert you
when there are any new results
Often two possibilities:
1. alert by e-mail
2. alert by RSS
Types of alerts:
1. search alerts
2. TOC alerts
3. citation alerts
Alerts

76.
Search alerts
= alert when there are new results for a specific
query previously defined
Alerts

77.
TOC alerts
= alert when a new volume of a specified joural (or
specified cluster of journals) appears
often with the table of contents of the new volume,
hence the name (TOC = Table ofContents)
Example: JournalTOCs
Alerts

83.
Plagiarism
“Plagiarism is a means of examination fraud
consisting of every form of copying the work of
others (ideas, texts, structures, images, plans etc.)
without using adequate source references.This
includes making identical copies as well as copying
with slight differences.To apply these regulations,
copying own work without a reference will also be
counted as examination fraud.”
(as defined at KU Leuven)

84.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism thus appears in different forms:
 Copying another person’s text (almost) literally without indicating
that the text is a quote and/or without an aduequate reference;
 Paraphrasing another person’s ideas without an adequate reference;
 Translating a text without an adequate reference;
 Copying an image, scheme, graph, figure, audio or video fragment
without an adequate reference;
 Auto-plagiarism: re-using your own work without properly indicating
that you re-used it.

85.
Plagiarism
Unintentional plagiarism can be avoided by:
• Citing the source if you use the words of another literally, and correctly
indicating this
• Completely and correctly referring to the author whose words or ideas you are
summarizing or paraphrasing
You can distinguish between citation and paraphrase by following this flow chart
(T. Frich, How to recognize plagiarism):

86.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism sometimes happens because of “laziness”, esp. in the internet age, since
it has become very easy to find some information on the net and copy-paste it
E.g. you find an earlier study which treats the topic you want to discuss very
well, so you copy its structure => large dependence on the argumentation and
structure of the original work, no new thesis or approach (so why write your
piece in the first place?)
E.g. you find an earlier study which treats the topic you want to discuss very
well, so you copy whole passages, but to avoid just copying the whole work,
you alternate these quotes with paraphrases => you create an inferior and
derivative work and why write your piece in the first place?
E.g. you find snippets of information which fit into your argument and
copy/paste these (perhaps making small changes to “glue” these snippets
together) and thus create a combination of original text with copied material
=> reader does not know who is responsible for what and this approach rarely
leads to a tekst which reads as a whole

87.
Plagiarism
Method to avoid plagiarism:
- Get acquainted with your topic based on a wide reading of available sources
- Create your own mind map of what you want to say and the structure of your
argument, defining your research problem and the proof you need to make and
maintain your argument
- Based on this structure, read more sources in detail and take careful notes (so
that you always know what is in the sources and what are your own
words/thoughts)
- Write a draft version without your sources at hand, indicating in your draft
where you will need to insert references and quotes
- Only then flesh it out with quotes and paraphrases that support your own
argument (structured by yourself), using complete and correcte references

88.
Plagiarism
A lot of unconscious
plagiarism is the result of
bad writing habits, such
as not being careful and
attentive whilst
preparing a text (e.g.
sloppy note taking)

89.
References
 balance needed between referencing too much (no plagiarism, but also
not a readworthy text) and referencing too little (plagiarism)
 no reference needed:
 when you state a common known fact
 when you provide information of your own (not published before)
 reference wisely if you base a part of your tekst on one or a few sources
 but of course: you ALWAYS need a reference when you are quoting or
paraphrasing

90.
References
to copy references
without having checked
them yourself is also a
form of academic fraud
“academic urban
legends”

91.
References
Referring to sources consulted can be done in several ways:
references in the text
references in footnotes
references in endnotes
bibliography

98.
Copyright
Copyright
right of the author/maker (or the potential
beneficiaries, e.g. the heirs of the author/maker) to
determine how, where and when a work of literature,
science or art is made or reproduced

99.
Copyright
Public domain
status of works (texts, images, etc.) which are
completely free of copyright
N.B.: often only 70 years after the demise of the
maker

100.
Open content
 initiatives to make knowledge, information or
art more freely available than what would be the
case according to traditional copyright
 e.g. Creative Commons: maker decides which
type of license he/she gives

102.
Creative
Commons
Attribution (by)
Others who use your work in any way must give you
credit the way you request, but not in a way that
suggests you endorse them or their use. If they want to
use your work without giving you credit or for
endorsement purposes, they must get your permission
first.
NonCommercial (nc)
Others may copy, distribute, display, perform,
and (unless you have chosen NoDerivatives)
modify and use your work for any purpose other
than commercially unless they get your
permission first.

103.
Creative
Commons
NoDerivatives (nd)
Others may copy, distribute, display and
perform only original copies of your work. If
they want to modify your work, they must
get your permission first.
ShareAlike (sa)
Others may copy, distribute, display,
perform, and modify your work, as long as
they distribute any modified work on the
same terms. If they want to distribute
modified works under other terms, they
must get your permission first.

105.
Copyright
Be careful when you sign
an author’s contract (in
other words READTHE
CONTRACT):
Sometimes you sign away
part of your copyright to
the publisher, so that you
are no longer free to share
your work as you may like

108.
The problem with
scholarly
communication
researchers often paid with tax money
researchers produce manuscripts (often without extra
payment)
researchers do the intellectual part of the editing (often
without extra payment): recruiting authors, filtering
manuscripts, textual editing, peer review, read proofs, …
publishers (sometimes) provide support for this editorial
work, and handle the operational aspects of publication
and distribution (although they also often enlist
researchers to play a role in the distribution and pr)

109.
The problem with
scholarly
communication
however: large parts of the copyright are typically signed
over to the publisher, esp. the right to make money on the
finished product
 what was produced (by researchers) thanks to tax
money, consequently needs to bought (by libraries or
individual researchers) with tax money
 extreme example, which is unfortunately not rare: a
researcher needs to pay in order to accesss the end result
of his/her own efforts

111.
“The amount of money paid by UK universities
to subscribe to some large publishers’ journals
has risen by almost 50 per cent since 2010”
(‘Spending on subscriptions to journals rises by up to 50%’, 2014)
The problem with
scholarly
communication

112.
“The opposite of open isn’t closed
but broken”
Cristobal Cobo
The problem with
scholarly
communication

115.
Research results (publications, data, ...) (paid with public
money) are made avilabe to everyone for free
For free
≠ without restrictions (e.g. plagiarism)
≠ immediately (e.g. embargo)
≠ identical to the commercial version (e.g. preprint)
OpenAccess

117.
OpenAccess
Danger of Gold OA:
in the hands of commercial publishers,
this is just another way to make profit
 “double dipping”
 excessiveAPC’s or BPC’s

118.
Fair Gold OA (e.g. see LingOA)
• The editorial board owns the title of the journals.
• The author owns the copyright of his articles, and a
CC-BY license applies.
• All articles are published in Full Open Access (no
subscriptions, no “double dipping”).
• Article processing charges (APCs) are low (around 400
euros), transparent, and in proportion to the work
carried out by the publisher.
OpenAccess